Coffman Joins Lawsuit to Challenge Key Provision of Obamacare

(Washington, D.C.) Today, U.S. Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) and a dozen other Members of Congress filed a “friend of the court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to hear a legal challenge to the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)created by the Affordable Care Act better known as Obamacare.

The IPAB is a 15-member board created to set reimbursement rates for Medicare and to determine which procedures, treatments and drugs will or won’t be paid for by the government for the medical treatment of more than 48 million Americans.  IPAB decisions cannot be challenged.

These powers are unprecedented and are unique to the IPAB. Never in American history has a board received such broad authority and essentially been exempted from oversight by either the Congress or the Courts.  Coffman is also a cosponsor of bipartisan legislation to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board.  The American Medical Association has formally endorsed the full repeal of IPAB.

 “We need to challenge the existence of the Independent Payment Advisory Board not only because it has received an unconstitutional mandate but because patients and their doctors, not bureaucrats, should determine their medical treatments.  I have co-sponsored legislation to repeal IPAB, and am proud to lend my support to this legal challenge as well.”

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take the case, Coons v. Lew, by June 30, 2015. Read the Congressional amicus brief here.